Household Support Fund allocation: FOI release

Information requested

Details on how the Scottish Government dished out their share of the UK Government's Household Support Fund.

Response

Barnett consequentials are received by the Scottish Government following UK spending in devolved areas. The consequentials are not required to be spent replicating UK Government policy decisions. It is at the discretion of Scottish Ministers to determine how best to utilise available funding to meet the Scottish Government’s objectives.

Consequentials received to date:
The Scottish Government has received the following consequentials relating to the UK Government’s Household Support Fund (‘HSF’).

Financial year	Amounts (£’m)	Event confirmed by UK Government at	Applied to Scottish Budget at	Household Support Fund period
2022-23	40.674	UK Spring Statement 2022	2022-23 Autumn Budget Revision	1 April 2022 – 30 September 2022
2022-23	41	UK Supplementary Estimates	2022-23 Autumn Budget Revision	1 October 2022 – 31 March 2023
2023-24	81.362	Autumn Statement 2022	2023-24 Scottish Budget	1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024
2024-25	TBC	N/A	N/A	1 April 2024 – 30 September 2024

Whilst the UK Government's announcement that the HSF will be extended to September 2024, the Scottish Government has not been allocated additional funding in 2024-25 at present, with final consequentials to be confirmed as part of UK Supplementary Estimates in early 2025.

How consequentials have been utilised:
The Scottish Government has not implemented a like for like equivalent of the UK Government Household Support Fund. The utilisation of consequentials in each financial year has been as follows:

2022-23
The First Minister, then Deputy First Minister, undertook an Emergency Budget Review during financial year 2022/23 in response to the economic turmoil faced. The Emergency Budget Review outlined a variety of fiscal measures that were being undertaken in response to the cost of living crisis and was published online here. 

Included within the options identified to help support the overall position was the utilisation of the £82 million of UKG Household Support Fund consequentials. These consequentials were formally allocated as part of the Scottish Government's in-year Autumn Budget Revision ('ABR'). A total of £447 million of Barnett consequentials were allocated as part of the ABR.

The Scottish Government did not implement a like for like equivalent of the UKG Household Support Fund but utilised the consequential to help fund a combination of both in-year pressures and a range of cost of living measures within the ABR. These included implementing the Council Tax reduction scheme, providing £140 million of funding to Local Government to support pay negotiations and providing Health with £41 million to aid the ongoing recovery from the pandemic and to address cost of living issues for health and social care workers.

A copy of the ABR Supporting Document as well as the Guide to the ABR is produced for the Finance and Public Administration Committee and can be found online here and here. These documents provide further details of how funding was utilised.

2023-24
The £82 million of Household Support Fund consequentials the Scottish Government received in 2023-24 was confirmed at the UK Autumn Statement in 2022. The Scottish Government allocated all of this funding as part of the 2023-24 Scottish Budget in December 2023. The Scottish Government does not hypothecate particular funding sources on specific projects within the Scottish Budget.

2024-25
The Scottish Government is yet to formally receive the Barnett consequentials related to the UK Government’s extension of the Household Support Fund to 30 September 2024. As per normal practice, any consequential funding will only be confirmed as part of supplementary estimates in early 2025. Any changes to funding will be outlined in the 2024-25 Spring Budget Revision which will be laid in Parliament in early 2025.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.